South-Eastern Railway to invest Rs 5,690 mn

Kolkata: South-Eastern Railway (SER) has lined up an investment of Rs 569 crore in 2008-09 for various projects like doubling of tracks, setting up new sidings for loading and unloading, signalling and also passenger amenities.

This apart, SER is also planning to go ahead with a major project which is set to boost its coal loading by around 36 million ton per annum.

'We are looking to build a 74-km track which will connect Mahanadi Coalfields Limited with the most suitable railhead. This project would be commissioned within four years and it is expected to bring an additional coal traffic of 36 million ton per annum for SER', A K Jain, general manager of SER told reporters on the sidelines of the 53rd railway week observed by the zonal railway.

In January 2008, SER completed the broad gauge conversion project between Bnkura and Rainagar and broad conversion project between Baripada and Bhanjpur was commissioned in February this year.

SER has posted a 11.71 per cent growth in its total originating earnings for 2007-08 at Rs 6,227 crore as against Rs 5,574 crore achieved in 2006-07.

SER posted a 12 per cent growth in its originating freight traffic at 111 million ton (mnt) in 2007-08 as against 99 mnt in 2006-07. Its freight earnings in the same period grew from Rs 4,877 crore to Rs 5,443 crore, thereby posting a growth of 12 per cent.

Its passenger earnings rose from Rs 644 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 721 crore in 2007-08, a rise of 12 per cent. Of the total freight traffic of 111 mnt, iron ore loading was 67.3 mnt, with an average of 51 iron ore rakes loaded per day and the iron ore throughput is expected to rise by 10 per cent in 2008-09.

Commenting on the performance, A K Jain, general manager of SER said, 'We have surpassed the freight loading target of 109 mnt set by the Railway Board for 2007-08. Though the target for 2008-09 is yet to be fixed by the Railway Board, we expect a freight loading of 120-125 mnt for this fiscal.'

He admitted that growth in coal loading for 2007-08 was almost stagnant as compared to the previous fiscal and attributed this to the dip in coal loading by Bharat Coking Coal Limited.

In terms of passenger traffic, SER carried 186 million passengers in 2007-08, a 3.8 per cent improvement over 179 million which it handled in 2006-07.

In 2007-08, SER achieved the best ever operating ratio of 54.8 per cent, thereby generating a surplus of over 45 per cent.

In this fiscal, SER is aiming at an operating ratio of around 50 per cent.

SER was also able to reduce its turnaround time for wagons from 2.11 days in 2006-07 to 1.96 days in 2007-08.